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PowerColor Devil 13 Dual GPU R9 290X reviewed

by on21 August 2014

Index

With the Devil 13 Dual GPU R9 290X PowerColor did what other AIBs did not dare do – it came up with a non-reference dual Hawaii card. This fact alone is worthy of some praise.

AMD used liquid cooling on the reference card and it has a slight edge when it comes to noise and thermals. However, PowerColor’s cooler also performs admirably. Performance is very similar, but the fan is louder.

As for gaming performance, the difference between the Devil 13 and the 18MHz faster reference card is negligible. Both cards are capable of running any game with maxed out details at 2560x1600 and they can even cope with UHD/4K resolutions.

After a lot of complaints about frame pacing issues on AMD’s previous dual-GPU cards, the company finally managed to win back the trust of diehard gamers with polished and stable R9 295X2 drivers.

At the end of the day it all boils down to personal preference, whether you want a triple slot air cooler card or a dual-slot card with water cooling.

Power Color’s R9 295X2 costs around €1230, which a bit more than two GTX 780 Ti cards. The PowerColor Devil 13 Dual GPU card is not easy to find in European retail and therefore it is quite a bit pricier than the reference card. On average you are looking at about €1,400 in Europe, but the price should drop as the card becomes widely available. However, in terms of value it is still an interesting proposition. The card ships with a bundled Razer Ouroboros gaming mouse, which costs about €130 on its own. That makes the price tag a bit easier to swallow.

For those who can afford it, the Devil 13 will deliver second to none performance, but as always the sad truth is that most gamers simply cannot afford dual-GPU flagships. 


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Last modified on 21 August 2014
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